Credibility is a cornerstone of sport and the Olympic Movement. This is especially true when cases like the one involving 23 Chinese swimmers who tested positive before the Tokyo Olympics sow discord. In its usual exercise of transparency, the International Testing Agency (ITA) presented a report on its activities during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games. To say the least, the ITA, present in Italy with a team of around twenty experts, was extremely busy.
63% of the athletes tested
The ITA collected 3.053 samples between January 30, the opening day of the Olympic Village, and February 22, the closing day of the Games. The vast majority were urine samples (2,180). In total, 1.848 athletes were tested, representing 63,4% of all participants. This is a significant increase compared to the 55% of athletes tested at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. All participating National Olympic Committees underwent testing. The United States, Italy, Canada, France, and Germany, which brought large delegations, were among the nations most frequently tested.
Ice hockey, cross-country skiing, biathlon, speed skating, and alpine skiing topped the list of sports with the highest number of tests. The proportion of tests conducted in and out of competition was roughly equal, with 50% of samples collected from each. 92% of participating athletes were tested at least once in the six months preceding the Games. As the ITA points out, The months leading up to the Games remain the most critical period for the effectiveness of anti-doping controls, and the implementation of pre-Games testing recommendations by the relevant anti-doping organizations remains essential to the overall robustness of the Olympic anti-doping framework. ».
The ITA relied on a risk assessment strategy conducted before the Games, taking into account " physiological characteristics of each discipline, individual athlete data, country-specific risk levels, and information collected via REVEAL The ITA's confidential reporting platform has enabled the majority of tests to be targeted and has strengthened the effectiveness of the anti-doping program. To date, no anti-doping rule violations have been detected. All samples collected have been analyzed by the World Anti-Doping Agency's accredited anti-doping laboratory in Rome and will be stored for up to ten years.
